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kamelie1706

Member

Registered: 2014-02-19

Posts: 176

Arctics 7 SteelSeries headset - Enable 7.1 - PulseAudio

Hi,

Just bought Arctics 7 SteelSeries headset 2019 edition, works perfetctly in stereo but was wondering about the 7.1.

aplay -l

card 2: S7 [SteelSeries Arctis 7], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: S7 [SteelSeries Arctis 7], device 1: USB Audio [USB Audio #1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

aplay -L

sysdefault:CARD=S7
    SteelSeries Arctis 7, USB Audio
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=S7,DEV=0
    SteelSeries Arctis 7, USB Audio
    Front speakers
surround21:CARD=S7,DEV=0
    SteelSeries Arctis 7, USB Audio
    2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers
surround40:CARD=S7,DEV=0
    SteelSeries Arctis 7, USB Audio
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=S7,DEV=0
    SteelSeries Arctis 7, USB Audio
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=S7,DEV=0
    SteelSeries Arctis 7, USB Audio
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=S7,DEV=0
    SteelSeries Arctis 7, USB Audio
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=S7,DEV=0
    SteelSeries Arctis 7, USB Audio
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=S7,DEV=0
    SteelSeries Arctis 7, USB Audio
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
usbstream:CARD=S7
    SteelSeries Arctis 7
    USB Stream Output

Found something in debian page
https://wiki.debian.org/PulseAudio

Many people have a multi-channel sound cards, but use the speakers for the two channels. PulseAudio has no default settings for surround sound support. To enable all channels, edit the file /etc/pulse/daemon.conf: uncomment default-sample-channels (ie remove the semicolon at the beginning of the line) and set it to 6 if you System 5.1 or 8, if your system is 7.1.

But seems to be for all devices ...

So seems at alsa level every fine but ....
Alsamixer shows only stereo/Mono outputs ... as Pulseaudio mixer (using pulseaudio-alsa plugin)

amixer -c2

Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 64
  Mono: Playback 64 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',1
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 64
  Mono: Playback 64 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Headset',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cvolume-joined cswitch cswitch-joined
  Capture channels: Mono
  Limits: Capture 0 - 70
  Mono: Capture 64 [91%] [0.00dB] [on]

What am I missing?

Thx

Last edited by kamelie1706 (2019-12-08 16:20:47)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,723

Re: Arctics 7 SteelSeries headset - Enable 7.1 - PulseAudio

your amixer command doesn't talk to the correct subdevice, and the pulseaudio-alsa mixer will only show what's actually playing if you are actually playing something. If you want to check/manipulate pulse state use

pacmd list-cards
pacmd list-sinks

(afaik steel series cards did get explicit support here, so you should be able to configure the correct profile here.) Also please use [ code ] not [ quote ] tags for pasting output.

kamelie1706

Member

Registered: 2014-02-19

Posts: 176

Re: Arctics 7 SteelSeries headset - Enable 7.1 - PulseAudio

Thx

Here we go, normally I managed all output using the kde standard audio interface ...
pacmd list-cards

index: 1
        name: <alsa_card.usb-SteelSeries_SteelSeries_Arctis_7-00>
        driver: <module-alsa-card.c>
        owner module: 7
        properties:
                alsa.card = "2"
                alsa.card_name = "SteelSeries Arctis 7"
                alsa.long_card_name = "SteelSeries SteelSeries Arctis 7 at usb-0000:00:12.2-5.7.1, full speed"
                alsa.driver_name = "snd_usb_audio"
                device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:12.2-usb-0:5.7.1:1.0"
                sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:12.2/usb1/1-5/1-5.7/1-5.7.1/1-5.7.1:1.0/sound/card2"
                udev.id = "usb-SteelSeries_SteelSeries_Arctis_7-00"
                device.bus = "usb"
                device.vendor.id = "1038"
                device.vendor.name = "SteelSeries ApS"
                device.product.id = "12ad"
                device.product.name = "SteelSeries Arctis 7"
                device.serial = "SteelSeries_SteelSeries_Arctis_7"
                device.string = "2"
                device.description = "SteelSeries Arctis 7"
                module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
                device.icon_name = "audio-card-usb"
        profiles:
                output:analog-mono+output:analog-stereo+input:analog-mono: Sortie Mono analogique + Sortie Stéréo analogique + Entrée Mono analogique (priority 5100, available: unknown)
                input:analog-mono: Entrée Mono analogique (priority 0, available: unknown)
                output:analog-mono: Sortie Mono analogique (priority 0, available: unknown)
                output:analog-mono+input:analog-mono: Duplex Mono analogique (priority 0, available: unknown)
                output:analog-stereo: Sortie Stéréo analogique (priority 5000, available: unknown)
                output:analog-stereo+input:analog-mono: Sortie Stéréo analogique + Entrée Mono analogique (priority 5000, available: unknown)
                off: Éteint (priority 0, available: unknown)
        active profile: <output:analog-stereo>
        sinks:
                alsa_output.usb-SteelSeries_SteelSeries_Arctis_7-00.analog-stereo/#2: SteelSeries Arctis 7 Stéréo analogique
        sources:
                alsa_output.usb-SteelSeries_SteelSeries_Arctis_7-00.analog-stereo.monitor/#3: Monitor of SteelSeries Arctis 7 Stéréo analogique
        ports:
                steelseries-arctis-7-output-mono: Headphones Mono Output (priority 0, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
                        properties:

                steelseries-arctis-7-output-stereo: Casque audio (priority 0, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
                        properties:

                steelseries-arctis-7-input: Microphone casque (priority 0, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
                        properties:

pacmd list-sinks

    index: 2
        name: <alsa_output.usb-SteelSeries_SteelSeries_Arctis_7-00.analog-stereo>
        driver: <module-alsa-card.c>
        flags: HARDWARE DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY DYNAMIC_LATENCY
        state: RUNNING
        suspend cause: (none)
        priority: 9049
        volume: front-left: 65536 / 100% / 0,00 dB,   front-right: 65536 / 100% / 0,00 dB
                balance 0,00
        base volume: 65536 / 100% / 0,00 dB
        volume steps: 65537
        muted: no
        current latency: 26,50 ms
        max request: 4 KiB
        max rewind: 4 KiB
        monitor source: 3
        sample spec: s16le 2ch 48000Hz
        channel map: front-left,front-right
                     Stéréo
        used by: 1
        linked by: 1
        configured latency: 21,33 ms; range is 0,50 .. 2000,00 ms
        card: 1 <alsa_card.usb-SteelSeries_SteelSeries_Arctis_7-00>
        module: 7
        properties:
                alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
                device.api = "alsa"
                device.class = "sound"
                alsa.class = "generic"
                alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
                alsa.name = "USB Audio #1"
                alsa.id = "USB Audio"
                alsa.subdevice = "0"
                alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
                alsa.device = "1"
                alsa.card = "2"
                alsa.card_name = "SteelSeries Arctis 7"
                alsa.long_card_name = "SteelSeries SteelSeries Arctis 7 at usb-0000:00:12.2-5.7.1, full speed"
                alsa.driver_name = "snd_usb_audio"
                device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:12.2-usb-0:5.7.1:1.0"
                sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:12.2/usb1/1-5/1-5.7/1-5.7.1/1-5.7.1:1.0/sound/card2"
                udev.id = "usb-SteelSeries_SteelSeries_Arctis_7-00"
                device.bus = "usb"
                device.vendor.id = "1038"
                device.vendor.name = "SteelSeries ApS"
                device.product.id = "12ad"
                device.product.name = "SteelSeries Arctis 7"
                device.serial = "SteelSeries_SteelSeries_Arctis_7"
                device.string = "hw:2,1,0"
                device.buffering.buffer_size = "384000"
                device.buffering.fragment_size = "192000"
                device.access_mode = "mmap+timer"
                device.profile.name = "analog-stereo"
                device.profile.description = "Stéréo analogique"
                device.description = "SteelSeries Arctis 7 Stéréo analogique"
                alsa.mixer_name = "USB Mixer"
                alsa.components = "USB1038:12ad"
                module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
                device.icon_name = "audio-card-usb"
        ports:
                steelseries-arctis-7-output-stereo: Casque audio (priority 0, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
                        properties:

        active port: <steelseries-arctis-7-output-stereo>